Railways: Franchises

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport which existing rail franchise contracts (a) have been or (b) he plans will be renewed by direct award to the incumbent operator; and at what stage negotiations with the incumbent operators has reached in each such case.

Stephen Hammond: As per the franchising timetable announced by the Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Derbyshire Dales (Mr McLoughlin), on 26 March 2013, a number of new franchise contracts need to be negotiated via Direct Award. These are new franchises, not extensions of existing contracts.
	Direct Awards have already been negotiated with Essex Thameside (c2c) and First Great Western. The contracts began in May 2013 and October 2013 and will run until September 2014 and July 2016 respectively.
	The Department has recently received the proposal for Greater Anglia, the Direct Award for which will commence July 2014 and run until October 2016. We are in negotiation with Northern and First Capital Connect whose Direct Awards will run from April 2014 to February 2016 and April 2014 to September 2014 respectively.
	The Department is preparing the Requests for Proposal for TransPennine (April 2015—February 2016); Intercity West Coast (November 2014—November 2017); South Eastern (October 2014—June 2018) and South West Trains (February 2017—April 2019). We are in initial discussions with London Midland (September 2015—June 2017); East Midlands Trains (April 2015—October 2017) and Cross Country (October 2016—October 2019).